LOS ANGELES—Aylo, the parent company of Pornhub.com, asked technology companies Google, Apple, and Microsoft to allow them access to API signals that allow for user age verification at the levels of devices and/or operating systems (OS) to aid in preventing minors from seeing pornographic content, AVN has confirmed.
Wired first reported last week that Aylo's chief legal officer, Anthony Penhale, sent separate request letters on Nov. 14 to the relevant executives requesting assistance with device-based age verification efforts. AVN confirmed receipt of these letters, and a spokesperson from Aylo also provided them for review.
Aylo has voiced support for device-based age verification over site-level measures, which are standard in state and regional age-gating policies across the United States and the European Union. Similarly, the leadership at Google, Apple and Microsoft has sent mixed messages about age verification at the device and OS levels.
Most recently, per AVN's reporting on the legislation, Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom signed into law a requirement for app store age verification in California. Google, Meta Platforms and OpenAI endorsed the California bill, while major film studios and streaming platforms announced opposition to the particular law.
"We strongly advocate for device-based age assurance, where users’ age is determined once on the device, and the age range can be used to create an age signal sent over an API to websites," writes Penhale in the letter addressed to Apple. "Understanding that your Declared Age Range API is designed to 'help developers obtain users’ age categories' for apps, we respectfully request that Apple extend this device-based approach to web platforms.
"We believe this extension is critical to achieving effective age assurance across the entire digital ecosystem and would enable responsible platforms like ours to provide better protection for minors while preserving user privacy," Penhale urged in the Apple letter.
The letters addressed to Google parent company Alphabet and Microsoft feature Penhale, similarly requesting access to the relevant age-gating API and other tools provided to developers who build apps and websites in their operating system ecosystems.
"As a platform operator committed to user safety and regulatory compliance, Aylo would welcome the opportunity to participate in any technical working groups or discussions regarding extending the current age signal functionality to websites," Penhale concluded in the letter addressed to Microsoft.
A spokesperson for Google shared in the Wired report that Google Play, the app store marketplace it manages via its Android operating system, doesn't "allow adult entertainment apps" and "that certain high-risk services like Aylo will always need to invest in specific tools to meet their own legal and responsibility obligations."
According to developer documentation reviewed by AVN, Apple confirmed that new devices for under-18 users have content controls turned on by default. Microsoft has been more focused on making age verification specific to the "service-level," which is typically at the service provider level.
These letters come at a time when Aylo has repeatedly demonstrated that site-level age verification, which is standard in jurisdictions across the United States and at the national level in France and the United Kingdom, is wholly ineffective and censorial by design.
AVN reported that traffic to Aylo's sites in the United Kingdom dropped by over 77 percent due to regulations enforced by Ofcom under the Online Safety Act. Other documents seen by AVN support cases of user migration from Aylo-owned regulated platforms to non-compliant, unregulated platforms.
Additionally, this news comes as a court in Germany placed a temporary hold on a network ban on the Aylo-owned websites Pornhub and YouPorn.
The Administrative Court of Düsseldorf on Nov. 19 temporarily blocked the regulations promulgated by the State Media Authority of North Rhine-Westphalia that compel German internet service providers (ISPs) to block access to the Aylo sites in the country's digital space.
This order would affect ISPs Deutsche Telekom, Vodafone, O2, and others, requiring them to block websites, particularly the Aylo sites, from complying with German age verification laws. Such an order comes as the High Administrative Court of North Rhine-Westphalia continues to litigate appeals on the initial network ban orders.
Düsseldorf's court additionally noted that the implementation of age verification laws in Germany, empowered by the Youth Media Protection Interstate Treaty of Germany, contradicts European Union laws on age verification outlined in the Digital Services Act.
Aylo remains in a legal dispute over its classification as a "very-large online platform" under the Digital Services Act, which has led to heightened digital safety scrutiny.
